Conditions of the Present

<div><i>Conditions of the Present</i> collects essays by the late Lindon Barrett whose scholarship centers African American literature as a site from which to theorize race and liberation in the United States. Barrett confronts critical blind spots within both academic and popular discourse offering readings of cultural and literary texts that transcend institutional divides and the gulf between academia and the street. Whether analyzing autobiographies by Lucy Delaney or Langston Hughes hip-hop eulogies or the formation of U.S. nationalist discourse Barrett interrogates the mechanisms that shape social and subjective structures and that grant certain people power while withholding it from others. Deploying Marxist psychoanalytic feminist and queer theories Barrett explicates the interrelationship of desire and subjection to expose the violence and coercion embedded in narratives of progress. Ultimately this collection emphasizes Lindon Barrett's vital and enduring contribution to African American studies.<br><br>Contributors. Elizabeth Alexander Jennifer DeVere Brody Daphne A. Brooks Linh U. Hua Janet Neary Marlon B. Ross Robyn Wiegman</div>